As my Christmas bonus arrived and I had time on my hands, I paid a visit to my local video/book exchange store. Yes! There are still some of those around—for how long, though, I have no idea!

And so I was rummaging through the rows and rows of used novels, music CDs, and films. Now bragging about finding a copy of Sneaker Pimps’ now seventeen-year-old “Becoming X” for $6 is probably not Criminal Element’s cup of tea. But as I was going through the used films, I realized that someone had clearly pawned their Criterion Collections and I was blessed with one of those rare moments in which you find great freaking movies at ridiculous prices.

[Score!]

I was looking at my collection (yes, I do this a lot) and I was wondering.

How can I have on the same shelf genres such as hard-boiled, gritty, literary, noir, literary noir, police procedurals, timeless classics like Catch-22, In Cold Blood, Naked Lunch, but also Dan Brown, some pulp PI novels and a collection of films that can go from Otto Preminger to Michael Bay?

(Thank God I don’t have any of those “My! Oh! My! Who could it be that stole the magic cupcakes?” and I’m not even getting into my sci-fi titles.)

How can I explain my (and probably your) taste in such a diversity of genres? Well, let me try a few examples.

First thing that comes to mind is Castle because, well, I was watching Castle.

Castle is cute (yes I’ve used the word cute). The murder scenes are not too morbid. The bodies are not decayed realistically. No bystanders ever appear to be panicking or screaming in utter terror and they always seem to break their case in a few days. (That would make it a hell of a police unit if you ask me.)

[Best closed case statistics...ever.]

If you have been arrested lately, especially in large groups (and let’s not assume that I would ever get arrested. That would never happen to a guy like me!), you might have noticed that the police no longer use handcuffs but rather use tie-wraps. (Or zip ties depending on where you are from.)

I mean, as a police tool it makes perfect sense. You don’t have to worry about losing the key, not knowing which model or serial number fits with which key, etc. There was the odd case where someone might actually beat the lock. Granted, they’d still have to bust out of the car and/or escape the officers, but if that never happened, Fox News could arguably be out of business by the end of the fiscal year.

Tie-wraps make sense for police work and there are better trained people than me who figured that out for all of us. But here’s the problem.

[There’s always a problem...]

Just like many of you, I buy most of my music online in digital format. The occasional CD I might still buy will quickly be transferred onto iTunes, added to my playlist, and the CD itself will gather dust in my old storage tower . . . behind the couch!

I remember a time when I would carry a 64-CD Caselogic around in my bag and a pack of batteries for the inevitable moment my Discman would be out of juice, which happened quite often. I don’t miss these days one bit.

On the other hand, my interest in music goes beyond the simple act of listening to songs on my iPod. I have always loved to hunt for new titles or bands (and I don’t mean online). I enjoy spending an hour or two just flipping through discs in a record store to see if a cover will catch my attention. It is just some hunger for discovery that I enjoy. There is something about the designs of the sleeves or the lyrics sheets that I feel is deeply connected to the music and the creative process of the artists.

[Is hardcover to publishing what vinyl is to the recording industry?]